Lorelei Kate's Birth Day

In the early morning of February 13th I had my first and only dream of Lorelei before she was born. We were sitting in the middle of church, she had long, dark, curly hair and a pretty white dress on. When I woke up I told Jeremy that I had a dream about her, and I felt that she would be here soon. That day Jeremy decided to call in sick to work so we could spend the day together.
I had a doctor’s appointment later that afternoon, so we went to the mall to walk around and relax. At the mall I was feeling really tired and very uncomfortable, so we went home so I could lie down. Jeremy cleaned the house while I watched T.V., and then we packed my hospital bag since we had just barely bought everything we needed, and put it in the trunk of the car.
When we arrived at my doctor’s appointment, the office was so crowded, apparently because my doctor was delivering a baby, and his appointments were backed up. After an hour, the nurse took us in the back to take my blood pressure. During my pregnancy, they had been watching my blood pressure because it was always too high. So when the nurse took it this last time she told me that the doctor would consider it high enough for me to get checked in the hospital and have my labor started for me. She said, “You are going to have your baby today!” After the doctor examined me, he said the same thing. Jeremy and I were so excited that it was finally here, but also very nervous.
The hospital was across the street so we went and checked in. The nurse gave us the best room in the hospital, it had windows on two sides of the room and was very big. So the nurses hooked me up to everything and we waited. At 6:30 PM, they broke my water, and about an hour later I started feeling contractions. In the beginning they just felt uncomfortable, but soon started to be painful. So the anesthesiologist came in the give me the epidural, which didn’t hurt at all. It helped a little, but we had to have him come back a couple of times to give me more. Eventually I dilated to a 3, but stopped and did not progress anymore for hours. The drugs made me so nauseous that I was sick many times and had to have Jeremy and the nurse lift me up and help me because I could not move anything below my chest. At about 7:30 AM the next day, I was finally getting to where the doctors wanted me to be. So at 10:30 AM I started pushing. I was so tired because of being up all night that it was so hard to push, and because of the epidural, it was hard to feel anything below my waist making it difficult to know if I was pushing at all. I pushed for an hour, but Lorelei didn’t want to come down. So the doctor said that I needed a C-section. At that time I didn’t care what happened, I just wanted her here.
They wheeled me into the operating room, and soon after Jeremy joined me. I had so many drugs in me, the epidural and then the anesthesia for the surgery, that the doctor later said it was a miracle that I was even awake. Before I knew it, at 11:27 AM on Valentine’s Day, Lorelei Kate Dowland was born. She didn’t even cry. Jeremy said her eyes were wide open, looking around at everyone. He was able to hold her first, and he brought her over to me. He put her face down next to mine, and we just looked at each other. She was so beautiful, with her blue eyes and dark curly hair. She was also very tiny, 6 pounds 2 ounces, and 19 ½ inches long. I was so happy, but also so sad because I couldn’t touch her because I was hooked up to different things.
Jeremy was able to hold and carry her to the nursery where they checked her and he gave her a bath.
We were in the hospital for 3 days and everyone came to visit. When we left the hospital she weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces.
She was such a wonderful and patient baby who smiled so easily and had such a happy and peaceful spirit that touched everyone she was around. She will always be our little Peanut.
Happy Birthday, Lorelei, our sweet Valentine.